pius xi as librarian

Pius XI as LibrarianAuthor(s): Eugne Cardinal TisserantSource: The Library Quarterly, Vol. 9, No. 4 (Oct., 1939), pp. 389-403Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4302636 .Accessed: 18/06/2014 04:26

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THE

LI BRARY QUARTERLY

Volume IX OCTOBER 1939 Number 4

PIUS XI AS LIBRARIAN

EUGENE CARDINAL TISSERANT

ON ACHILLE RATTI, the future Pope Pius XI, entered the profession of librarianship on November 8, i888, when he was elected to succeed the late Don

Fortunato Villa as doctor of the Ambrosiana Library. As professor of eloquence in the Milan Theological Seminary for the preceding six years, the new librarian had received no professional library training. He had, however, distinguished himself as a brilliant and profound student in the Seminary of the Archdiocese of Milan and in the Gregorian University in Rome: he had his degrees in philosophy, theology, and canon law.

Of course, the doctors of the Ambrosiana were not exactly of the same type as modern librarians; and their responsibilities did not correspond very closely with the duties which press most heavily in the majority of the present-day libraries. The famous library-founded in 1609 by Cardinal Federigo Borromeo in the interest of humanistic culture-was visited only by scholars, and the librarians had very little to do in the way of giving service to the public. Their task was to study manuscripts and printed books, and they were expected to publish old texts or important dissertations on philological and historical matters.

The head of the library, Antonio Ceriani, famous for his works on Syriac and Greek manuscripts of the Old Testament,

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390 THE LIBRARY QUARTERLY

had taught Hebrew to Achille Ratti at the Milan Theological Seminary, and we may conclude that Ceriani had from that time a special esteem for the capacity of his former student. But, until i888, Don Achille Ratti had published very little. In I883 he had collaborated in a chapter of Mercalli's book, Vukani e fenomeni vulcanici, on the historical earthquakes in Italy. In i885 he had given fourteen pages, on the origin of man, to a book on theology by his colleague in the Milan Seminary, Don Federico Sala.

These two writings by the young Ratti reveal that he enjoyed the study of natural sciences. Already he had begun to be an enthusiastic mountaineer, and we know that he did not neglect, in his ascents, to record and study geological data. Son of a businessman, reared near the silk-weaving plant of his father, Achille Ratti had a very open mind, and he was to develop along lines quite dissimilar to those of his beloved master, Ceriani. He did not remain purely a man of study; he became a real librarian, a type of transition between the old and the new, as his successor at the Ambrosiana, Mgr Giovanni Galbiati, has acutely pointed out: "Achille Ratti non fu un bibliotecario all'antica maniera, ma fu il bibliotecario dei nuovi tempi o, se anche dovessimo modificare e attenuare la frase, Egli significo il passaggio tra l'antico e il nuovo tipo di bibliotecario."'

As a student in the Theological Seminary, Don Achille Ratti had been in charge of the reading-room (I877) and was accustomed to help his fellow-students who, more than likely, were provided with very poor notions of bibliography. He judged that his chief task as assistant librarian of the Ambrosiana was to assist the visitors in their researches of manuscripts or of rare books. He endeavored to know as completely as possible the resources of the library, and, since he had an excellent memory, he succeeded so well in his efforts that many years later, when he was pope, he recorded titles with their locations in the Ambrosiana. In order to be more efficient in guiding scholars

X Papa Pio XI euocatoda Giouanni Galbiati (Milan: Ancora, 1939), p. i6; cf. pp. 17I f.



PI US XI aS LIBRARIAN 391

and readers, he preferred not to specialize too much;2 and it is a matter of common knowledge that many scholars who met him in Milan or Rome wondered at the broadness of his interest in so many disciplines.

For many years Achille Ratti was only one of the assistant librarians, and in the same manner as his colleagues he gave most of his time to the preparation of publications. Ceriani, however, inclined more and more to leave to him the contacts with the readers and the care of the material organization. As early as i895, Don Achille Ratti had arranged that the floor above the rooms of the library should no longer be used as apartments, thus diminishing the risk of fire, which was giving great anxiety in such an old building. After the disastrous fire of I904 in the Turin National Library had destroyed thousands of books and manuscripts, Don Achille Ratti saw to it that the Ambrosiana was made one of the most efficiently fireproofed libraries in Europe.

These changes which were effected for the improvement of the building permitted the complete rearranging of two sections of the Ambrosiana, i.e., the Pinacoteca (or gallery of paintings) and the Museo Settala (a curious example of an encyclopedical private collection of the seventeenth century which, after a long period of neglect, was now called to a new life). The important new arrangements were explained in an anonymous booklet which was, however, by Ratti-Guida sommaria per il visitatore della Biblioteca Ambrosiana e delle collezioni annesse (Milan, January 25, 1907. Pp. I6o; with go illustrations and 2 plates in colors) .4

2 Cf. discourse of Father H. Quentin at the Ambrosiana on March 20, I927, in ibid., p. 85: "II s'etait tellement donn6 A ses fonctions qu'il n'avait voulu se specialiser dans aucune matiere, pour pouvoir etendre toujours la competence du biblioth&caire...."

3 The Italian government, which was then without relations with the Roman Catho- lic Church, knighted A. Ratti on Sept. 30, I906, "because he had earned great dis- tinction in historical studies and had completely rearranged the Ambrosiana Library and Gallery." In I898 a state administration had manifested its esteem of Ratti's ability when it intrusted to him the rearrangement of the library in the Pavia Carthusian Monastery.

4 A brief notice on the Ambrosiana Library had already been written anonymously by A. Ratti in 1893 for the official statistics of Italian libraries.



392 THE LIBRA1RY QUARTERLY

In the successive months which saw his election as librarian on March 8, 1907, after the death of Antonio Ceriani, Mgr Ratti introduced in some stacks a metal shelving and improved the reading-room, dividing it into two parts-one for readers of manuscripts and one for readers of printed books. At the same time the Ambrosiana was furnished with a repair shop for manuscripts,s similar to that which Father Ehrle had established in the Vatican Library. Mgr Ratti had been interested in the repair of manuscripts since 1897, when Father Ehrle, on the occasion of the Saint Gall conference, asked him to have prepared in the family mill at Desio some thin silk tissue for the reinforcement of paper manuscripts corroded by ink.

Mgr Ratti procured for the Ambrosiana many accessions. Some were gifts-such as the libraries of Nardi and Tosi (1903), manuscripts of Trotti (I907) and Caprotti (I909); and he purchased important series of printed books and even incunabula and manuscripts, as, for example, a fine group of Christian oriental manuscripts at Munich (1g9o). The charter of founda- tion of the Ambrosiana forbade the doctors to prepare and publish catalogs of the collections, but Mgr Ratti secured other collaborators for that important work and directed the complete cataloging of the printed books, asking money for that special purpose on the occasion of the tercentenary of the Ambrosiana in I909.

Mgr Ratti, who had visited many Italian and foreign libraries for the preparation of the J!cta Ecclesiae Mediolanensis and had served so many scholars in the Ambrosiana, watched carefully the professional problems. It is no wonder that he par- ticipated in 1g9o in the International Conference of Archivists and Librarians at Brussels.

The Ambrosiana Library depends from the Holy See and, in i8g8, one of her doctors-Don Giovanni Mercati-following in the steps of Angelo Mai, became a scriptor of the Vatican Li- brary. When Father Ehrle, after directing the Vatican Library

s The occasion for this was perhaps the urgent need of perfecting materials and de- veloping skill in the repairing of old manuscripts and parchments in the archives of the Milan Cathedral, which had been damaged in I9o6 by the fire of the Milan Exhibition.



PI US XI aS LIBRARIAN 393

for several years, was considering a successor, he, with his preferred collaborator, examined meticulously the titles of various scholars. They agreed on the person of Mgr Ratti; and when their choice was presented to Pius X it was immediately declared acceptable. On November 8, 19II, the prefect of the Ambro- siana was designated as vice-prefect of the Vatican Library cum iure successionis. Since it seemed inadvisable to remove him at once from the Ambrosiana, where he had been in charge a little more than four years, and since Father Ehrle was still able to work, it was arranged that for a period Mgr Ratti would divide his time between Milan and Rome, a fortnight or so in each place. This regime began in February, I912, and continued until December, I913, when Mgr Ratti took possession of the apartments of the librarian in the Vatican; he remained, however, the chief of the Ambrosiana until September 26, 1914.

Mgr Ratti began his actual direction of the Vatican Library at the reopening of October, I9I3, but not until September 1, I914, did he receive the title of prefect. No fundamental reform seemed necessary. The Vatican Library had been remarkably well managed by Father- Ehrle, although with inadequate means. An excellent collection of reference works-about 30,000 volumes-had been formed and made directly accessible to the readers in the room, famous among scholars, Sala di consul- tazione. At the end of 19I2 the reading-room for the study of manuscripts had been transferred to the same floor as the Sala, effecting very favorable conditions for study.

Father Ehrle, however, freely avowed that much remained to be done; he had given the best of his attention to the manuscripts and had organized a fine staff of catalogers for that preferred part of the treasures under his care. Assuredly, he did not undervalue the printed books, since he had secured for the Vatican Library so splendid a collection as the Barberini, and he had tried to rebuild the oldest collections-Prima raccolta and Palatina-on the basis of the inventories of 1686-go. But for the cataloging of the printed books the library lacked a trained staff and had at its disposition no money for extra work. The man in charge of the accessions and the reference room for many



394 THE LIBRAfRY QUARTERLY

years, although without special training, had good sense and a good hand; he was careful in observing the meager cataloging rules Father Ehrle had compiled, mostly from information received from Leopold Delisle. The cards for the books of the reference room were almost adequate. The care of the other books was officially intrusted to three assistants who were old. Only one of them had sufficient literary and linguistic competence. One was a retired artillery captain of the Pontifical Army who, fortunately, instead of writing cards, read the news- papers most of the time. XVith this personnel it was impossible to attempt the cataloging of at least 300,000 volumes. Of course, many of these works had once been cataloged, since every collection had its own catalog, but these catalogs were usually in book form, and the call numbers were topographical; after one or more changes of location it was impossible to trace a quantity of books, even when one knew the library possessed the titles.

Mgr Ratti understood thoroughly the situation and resolved to begin at once the work on a main catalog of all the Vatican printed books. Those of the attendants who had a tolerable cal- ligraphy and were careful in their transcriptions were invited to give extra work for copying on cards the entries in the ancient catalogs. The effort was not conceived as a definitive one because the original entries were too lacking in uniformity, but to have all the titles in one card catalog would have been a decidedly great advancement. Unfortunately, the period of the war was not a propitious time for the undertaking; the men were anxious to procure food for their families and some of them had found more remunerative work outside the library. However, the prefect did not lose courage and, after obtaining permission from the Pope, on December I5, 19I7, to turn over the library courtyard to the staff members of the lower grades for the cul- tivation of vegetables for their families, he asked, on February IO, I9I8, that the copyists, in order to accelerate the work, be allowed to carry home every evening some of the ancient catalogs.

Meanwhile, the regular staff of catalogers, which Mgr Ratti



PI US XI AS LIBRARIAN 395

was able to strengthen, began to catalog the printed books which were not in the repertories. Most of these works were less important because Father Ehrle and Mgr Mercati had already chosen from the collections the best for the reference room, but there were about two hundred presses full of books. Mgr Ratti began, as preliminary work, to classify them into the broad sections of the main collection or Raccolta generale-philosophy, theology, history, etc.

The manuscripts had been watched with special care by Father Ehrle. The work of the repair shop, however, was too limited. Many volumes, especially the Italian manuscripts of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, were heavily corroded by ink and needed special consideration. Mgr Ratti examined the manuscripts one after another and labeled those which, without previous preservative treatment, it would be imprudent to give to readers.

And, along with these manifold tasks, Mgr Ratti continued to assist scholars by personal conference and by correspondence, as he had been accustomed to do at the Ambrosiana. And also, since the Vatican Library had exhibition rooms, he proceeded to make various new arrangements of the exhibited pieces. Several thousands of volumes, containing addresses of the popes of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, were transferred from the Casino of Pius IV and displayed in the exhibition cases which had contained the small Byzantine and primitive paintings before the reorganization of the Pinacoteca. New windows were opened in the low room which housed the Mai collection; new stacks were installed under the Gallery of Inscriptions; new shelving was prepared for extra-size books. As another conse- quence of the war, Mgr Ratti began to extract duplicates from the various Vatican collections in view of the reconstruction of the Louvain University Library; Benedict XV had given this order on April 28, I9I5.

Mgr Ratti was as good as a father to his subordinates. He was very kind. His procurement of gardening privileges for them has already been mentioned. When they were sick he visited them and generously carried to them sweets or a bottle of




good wine. On October 26, i9i6, he took the nonprofessional workers of the library for a holiday in the Castelli Romani, and he wrote in the chronicle of the library that the day had been a very good one for all. In the beginning of the war he was par- ticularly concerned about three scriptores who were in Belgium, and he made every effort to secure their return to Rome. This was possible for one of them only after a stay in the prison of Freiburg in Breisgau. To me, who had been mobilized in the French army since the beginning of the German attack and from whom he awaited news, he sent on a post card, dated Septem- ber 4, 1914, these very kind sentiments: "Mon bien cher Doc- teur Tisserant. Si cette carte arrive jusqu'a vous, qu'elle vous dise combien de fois j'ai pense a vous pendant tout ce temps, et le desir ardent, angoisse, qui me tourment [sic], d'avoir de vos nouvelles; et les prieres que j'offre au bon Dieu pour vous, pour vos chers, pour votre noble pays." And after that date almost every month I received post cards or letters which kept me informed regarding my colleagues and the life of the library. The librarian of the Vatican was very human!

On February 28, I918, when I was rejoining the headquarters of the French Palestine detachment after a leave, Mgr Ratti introduced me to Benedict XV, saying: "Holy Father, here is my military attache." And the Pope answered: "Will you then go into diplomatic service?" On April 7, Mgr Ratti was designated as Apostolic Visitor to Poland. He departed on May i9, I919, for Warsaw, leaving the direction of the Vatican Library to Mgr Giovanni Mercati.

Becoming apostolic nuncio on June 6, I919; cardinal and archbishop of Milan on June I3, I92I; pope on February 6, I922, the former prefect of the Ambrosiana and Vatican libraries was apparently lost to the profession. But who has been once a scholar and librarian remains a scholar and librarian all

6 The colleagues who were in Rome during the war remember with a special feeling how sympathetic he was in his relations to another of our Belgian colleagues, Dr. Paul Liebaert, who died from typhoid fever in Pallanza on August 25, 1915. Mgr Ratti himself took care of the funeral, since the parents were prevented by the war from being present.



ffti ff

Plus XI

Photograph taken on the terrace by Cardinal Tisserant's niece, Marguerite-Marie Vuillemin, on March 29, I936, when Pius XI visited for the first time the-librarian apartments. Left to right: Mr. Castelli (the contractor who made all the important constructions in the Vatican and especially in the library); Cardinal Tisserant; His Holiness, Pius XI; Cardinal Mercati; and Cardinal Pacelli (now Pius XII).



EX LIBRIS

A

PlO PP Xi AD

SVVM SVCCESSORVMQ.

VSVM

COMPARATIS

Ex libris OF THE PRIVATE LIBRARY OF THE POPE



PI US XI AS LIBRARIAN 397

his life long.7 Professor B. L. Ullman and the librarians of distant Iowa chose indeed a most fitting phrase when they sent to the Vatican the much appreciated message: "Unus ex nobis factus est Papa." The day after his solemn entrance into his cathedral, Cardinal Ratti naturally visited the Ambrosiana and, when in Rome for the conclave, on January 27, I922, the Vatican Library. On the evening of his election he received the congratulations of his senior collaborators; he was, however, so strongly overwhelmed by the grandeur of his new charge that he seemed to us extraordinarily distant.

Pius XI was pope, but he was librarian too, and he began his pontificate with the creation of a new library-a special library for the pope. Assuredly his predecessors had possessed books, but at their deaths these volumes were removed from the papal apartments: the library of Pius IX was transferred to St. Apol- linares University (Seminario Pio), that of Leo XIII was dis- tributed to seminaries. Pius XI judged it expedient that a collection of reference books that would be useful to the pope should remain permanently in the papal apartments. Since he was an excellent bibliographer, he purchased the best-mostly through the Vatican Library-and ordered from the Vatican printing office a very simple ex libris, which stated exactly what he had in mind.

The library of the pope, nevertheless, is primarily the Vatican Library, and Pius XI was exceptionally cognizant of this fact- frequently he asked for books, especially when he was preparing encyclicals. Moreover, from the first days of his pontificate he gave serious thought toward improving the service of the library. Then, as in the time of Sixtus V, the library had a great need of physical expansion-'in many book presses the volumes were shelved two or three rows deep; several deposits were established in rooms which were completely apart from the library. In March and in June, I922, the pope gave to the library the private chambers of the Borgia apartments and other rooms above them-a limited increase in space, it is true, but extreme-

7 Mgr Ratti wrote from Warsaw on May i6, I9I9: "Certo, la nostalgia della Biblio- teca e dei libri, assai piti di quella del paese nativo, mi si fa da un pezzo sentire."




ly valuable because this addition made possible a fitting disposition of the Barberini archives and of other collections. Thus a third floor, above the stacks installed in I9I2, was assigned to the manuscripts.

In 1928, I930, I933, and 1938 other additions were granted- first, the old horse stables; next, the mosaic workshop on the level of the ground floor of the library; and finally, the space under the reference room, which was constructed for the depart- ments of accessions and cataloging and the school of library science. True, a pope who had not been a librarian would also have added space to the library-Benedict XV had already promised to give the mosaic factory, but first it was imperative to provide another place sufficiently commodious for the transference of 28,ooo varieties of enamels which, in the old shop, were displayed in a wooden case of pigeonholes along the walls, 20 feet high and 250 feet long. This long-expected and sorely needed extension was given by Pius XI when he began to erect buildings in the Vatican area. He assigned to the library staff the study of the equipment to be installed in the new mosaic factory, a more compact and efficient arrangement of the enamels in steel, with drawers fitted with ball-bearing rollers.

From the very beginning of his pontificate, the zeal of the ex-librarian for his library was manifest in the department of accessions. When Pius XI heard, on April I, I922, that Arabic manuscripts of the Yemen were to be sold by the heirs of Mr. Caprotti, from whom he had formerly purchased for the Am- brosiana I,6oo items in the same field, he immediately recom- mended prompt negotiations. On April 29 the manuscripts were in Rome.

The next extensive accession was that of the Chigi Library. When he learned, in November, I9I6, while he was prefect, that the Italian government was buying the Chigi Palace, he had tried without success to secure for the Vatican that library, created by Alexander VII, which contained such documents of interest to the Holy See that Father Ehrle in I906 had already attempted to purchase it. What had been impossible in I905 and I9I6 was realized at the end of I922, when Mr. Mussolini, in



PIUS XI as LIBRARIaN 399

order to elude some obligations imposed upon the state with its acquisition, resolved to give the Chigi Library to the pope, stipulating the almost unique condition that it be removed immediately from the palace. The transference of the library of 35,000 volumes consumed a little better than three weeks- from January i8 to February io, I923.

A few weeks later I left with Father Cyril Korolevskij for the Near East, where Pius XI believed it would be possible to gather rare books and manuscripts from the Christian families who had suffered from the World War and its sequels. Although he did not receive encouraging answers from the apostolic delegates and other prelates who had been interrogated, the pope sent his missi dominici, as did Nicholas V and other humanist popes of the Renaissance, with broad instructions and a provision of 600,000 lire. Father Korolevskij remained abroad more than a year and, after we had explored together the Balkans, he went as far as Warsaw and Vilna in search of historical and ecclesias- tical books; I visited Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. We purchased a very important lot of archivistic documents at Constantinople and, for the Vatican Library and the Pontifical Institute of Oriental Studies, some minor manuscripts and thousands of printed books which it would have been almost impossible to find by any other method. Again in I926, Pius XI took a similar initiative, acquiring the private collection of Archbishop Petit in Athens-a library of not a great number of items, but highly specialized in Greek editions.

Besides the collections which were added because of his sagacity, experience, and sensitivity to favorable conditions for extraordinary acquisitions, through the providential fact that Pius XI had been a librarian many more valuable items were gained for the Vatican Library. The pope used to send to the Vatican Library all the volumes presented to him-usually every six months, when the shelves of his cabinet were full. Since people knew that the pope was pleased to receive books, fine items continually flowed in. It is not temerity to think that the Marchioness Ferrajoli, born De Rossi, gave to Pius XI with keener pleasure, because he was a pope-librarian, the important




collection of her booklover husband; and also, encouraged by the appreciative reception of the pope, Prince Gelasio Caetani made arrangements for the permanent deposit of his family archives.

It is true that Pius XI did not make a special endowment to strengthen the accessions of the library, as he had several times planned; he was very scrupulous in the use of the monies given to him and would not employ for intellectual objectives what was given to him for religious purposes. But he decidedly fa- vored the printing of new works and paid for them, leaving to the library the full cash accrued from the sales, as his predecessors had done; and he helped to acquire from several printers or publishers volumes of our series which, for lack of funds, had been intrusted to others.

Pius XI granted full freedom to his successors in the manage- ment of the library and they were able to develop the services according to the methods they preferred. But he was pleased to discuss with them the measures they contemplated and he entered into these deliberations always with a professional ap- proach, keeping strictly in sight the advantage to the readers. Thus as early as May 3, 1922, he approved the extension of the opening on Thursdays and, in I923, the postponement of the date of the summer closing from June 28 to July iS. Later, when he had substantially increased the salaries, he imposed on the staff new regulations, lengthening the hours of service.

The great objective for which Pius XI as librarian had worked was not forgotten. The old, untrained personnel had been re- placed by hard-working catalogers who attacked the stock of uncataloged books with gratifying results. In the beginning of I926 a very favorable circumstance arose-the Carnegie En- dowment for International Peace indicated that it was ready to assist the Vatican Library to give more efficient service to the public, quite properly considering the library an important international center, where representatives of many nations meet. The idea had its inception in a chat between the late Prince Gelasio Caetani (then the Italian ambassador in Washington) and Mr. Samuel H. Church. After a thorough discussion of the



PIUS XI aS LIBRARIAN 401

problem by the trustees, Mr. Henry S. Pritchett arrived in Rome and was received on May IO, I926, by the pope, to whom Mr. Pritchett made the proposal to assist in the preparation of a main catalog of the printed books. The pope thought over, accepted the offer. Next year, on March 12, when there was under construction a room for the catalog and catalogers-the first special room for any department or officer, except that of the secretary and disbursing officer-there arrived, as consulting library expert of the Carnegie Endowment, Dr. William W. Bishop. Since the primary problem concerned the printed books, Dr. Bishop began, on March 14, with an examination of the printed collections. The trustees, however, had given to him very broad instructions and, with the agreement of the Vatican authorities, he soon extended his inquiry to the other services of the library, including manuscripts and incunabula. Pius XI, who had been informed the day before by Mgr Mercati of all the technical problems considered, received Dr. Bishop on March 30, and on the morning of April 2 accepted as a first measure the invitation to send one of the officers of the library to visit American libraries. On Palm Sunday, April I0, the pope received me and in twenty-five minutes gave me his instructions and counsels, both general and technical.

I insist on these details, because they show how Pius XI continued his interest in the life of the library in general and in the most minute particulars. There followed, on my return from the visit to the United States and Canada, his approval, in the main, of a scheme of organization corresponding to the probable increase of the collections and services during a long period, say, of fifty years. Of that program there have been realized the following important points: in August, I927, the ordering of steel catalog furniture, cabinets now used for the depository catalog of the Library of Congress and the official catalog; in I928 the installation of the Snead standard stacks in the horse stables; in I93I new stacks in the former mosaic workshop; in 1933 (after the collapse of the Sistine Library or Braccio Vecchio) the erec- tion of steel shelving in the reference room according to a plan approved on September 20, I931, and the construction of a new




cataloging room; in I936, the construction of a new repair shop for the manuscripts, of an office for the librarian, of photo- graphic workrooms-all these constructions with convenient accessory arrangements, such as air conditioning in the stacks, three elevators, electric lights everywhere, new furniture for the reading-rooms, and new cabinets for the public catalog, etc.8

The personal participation of the pope in all this work was considerable, not only because he examined, discussed, approved all the projects, and accepted the responsibility of financing all the constructions and purchases of furniture, with the one exception of the air-conditioning apparatus, but also because he visited the library and watched the construction, encouraging librarians and contractors. Nobody will wonder at the frequency of the pontifical visits to the place where Pius XI had had so many pleasant experiences as a scholar and a professional man. As early as June 20, I922, Pius XI came to the library; he examined the Caprotti manuscripts which were presented to him by some Milanese friends, a fine lot of Latin Bibles from the Vercellone collection (bought by his predecessor, but as yet unpaid for), and the most beautiful specimens of the Celati numismatic collection, acquired a few months before his pontificate. In the course of that first visit, the pontiff, stopping almost at every step and recalling many memorable conversa- tions, did not disdain to sit for a moment in the prefectoral chair in which he had presided over the reading-room for almost five years-a gentle, familiar gesture.

I should write pages and pages if I were to report the visits which followed. Most of them were in a strictly private form, others were official-on December 20, i922, for the unveiling of a bust of Sixtus V; on November 4, I924, for the solemn presentation of five volumes of miscellanea to Cardinal Ehrle on the occasion of his eightieth anniversary; on December 20, I928, for the inauguration of the new stacks, with the participation of

8 Pius XI did not care for the Vatican Library only; he directed the construction of a new reading-room and two-floor stacks about 4oo feet long for the Vatican Archives; he housed in the Northern Gallery of St. Peter's Place the archives of the Vicariate of Rome in a three-floor steel stack, and created in 1925 a missionary library, now in the Palace of Propaganda.



PI US XI as LIBRaRIAN 403

sixteen cardinals; on May 17, I929, for the audience of the members of the International Congress of Librarians; on November 28, 1937, in a more intimate way on account of his health, for presentation to Cardinal Mercati of four volumes of his minor works reprinted on the occasion of his seventieth anniversary.

Until the last weeks of his life, Pius XI watched with the soul of a librarian over the Vatican Library; although he had regu- larly given to it all the books he received, still he left it by will several objects for the exhibition room and for the Christian art collection, already abundantly enriched by him and completely rearranged. Those who have given their physical, intellectual, and spiritual strength to that honored profession may be proud of Achille Ratti, great librarian and great pope.



Article Contentsp. 389p. 390p. 391p. 392p. 393p. 394p. 395p. 396[unnumbered][unnumbered]p. 397p. 398p. 399p. 400p. 401p. 402p. 403

Issue Table of ContentsThe Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy, Vol. 9, No. 4 (Oct., 1939), pp. 389-562Volume Information [pp. 555-562]Front Matter [pp. 511-512]Pius XI as Librarian [pp. 389-403]A Short List of References to the Vatican Library [pp. 404-410]Other Aspects of Union Catalogs [pp. 411-431]Librarians and Archives [pp. 432-444]The Idea of the American Library [pp. 445-476]Library Unionization [pp. 477-510]The Cover Design [p. 513]ReviewsReview: untitled [pp. 514-517]Review: untitled [pp. 517-518]Review: untitled [pp. 518-520]Review: untitled [pp. 520-522]Review: untitled [pp. 523-524]Review: untitled [pp. 524-525]Review: untitled [pp. 526-527]Review: untitled [pp. 527-529]Review: untitled [pp. 529-530]Review: untitled [pp. 530-533]Review: untitled [pp. 534-536]Review: untitled [pp. 536-537]Review: untitled [pp. 537-538]Review: untitled [pp. 538-539]Review: untitled [pp. 539-541]Review: untitled [p. 542]Review: untitled [pp. 542-543]Review: untitled [pp. 543-544]Review: untitled [pp. 545-547]Review: untitled [pp. 548-549]

Book Notes [pp. 550-551]Books Received [pp. 552-554]Back Matter

pius xi as librarian

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